


like clockwork

by writerlily



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: AU, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:23:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8553757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerlily/pseuds/writerlily
Summary: she was not expecting something like this.





	1. Chapter 1

Kate turns sixteen when it happens. 

It's midnight and she's the only one awake in her house and it's her birthday. She's in her teenager phase where everything in her room has been stripped of anything plush and childish from when she was seven and decided things _needed_ to be pink like cotton candy and fluffy. Her nails are painted a dark red color that her dad dislikes and maybe she wears her skirts scandalously short sometimes (by _Bethel's_ standards, at least-- i.e. not short at all). There's books lining the shelves in her room and her bible is neatly placed on the small table besides her bed, but it goes unopened tonight-- because tonight-- she's finally made it to sixteen and she's finally going to get her soulmark. 

Sixteen is the average age that people get theirs, although that data can still vary and her brother Scott is living proof of this. He got his soul mark when he turned eleven and she had been so jealous; so much anger had filled her tiny body at her brother-- for something that he really had no control of. She had apologized for being mean to him about it and he had forgiven her. She's learned to live with the waiting: had hope and prayed every night for her soulmark to arrive, because she couldn't bear the thought of not having a soulmate. 

She's sitting in her room on the floor near the window. The air that flows in is cool and caresses her bare skin and silver moonlight glows down at her as Kate waits, and waits, and waits, and the seconds and minutes tick by until her excitement waters down to a disappointment that weighs heavily in her belly. 

She's just about to start crying into her blue pillow when she feels it-- the telltale sign that her soulmark is arriving. She's read all about this moment and asked almost everyone she knows about what she should expect. Some say they didn't even feel their soulmarks, and some say their soulmarks felt as if they were merely a pinch against the skin. 

But her's-- _god_ , her's is none of those. Her's is a sharp feeling against her left wrist and she almost cries out in pain. It's lightning striking her: quick and fast and painful and it's over as soon as it starts, but it still hurts like a bitch. She looks at her left wrist, noting that the pain has already begun to dull, and she presses her right hand to her mouth in shock. 

Her soulmark is a black flame on the inside of her left wrist. It looks like it's almost threatening to spread up her skinny arm and her mouth parts open as she runs her right hand over the dark marks against her pale skin. 

She was _not_ expecting something like this.

\--

Seth is twenty five and living in a cheap motel when something wakes him up in the middle of the night. 

There's taco wrappers and empty beer bottles littering the table by the front window and there's more guns in the small room than necessary, really, but Seth has always been a little _too_ cautious and _too_ suspicious of everything and everyone so his small armory stays.

He's asleep and still kind of drunk when his eyes fly open at the feeling of something touching him. He immediately sits up. Turns on the light on the bedside table and tugs his shirt off, thinking that there must be a spider crawling on him somewhere. But that whispery feeling still lingers on his chest and he half walks, half stumbles to the bathroom. Practically struggles with just flicking the light switch on, and he finally gets it right, only for him to stop cold in front of the mirror. 

When he was sixteen, a soulmark never came for him. Even Richard had gotten his soulmark at sixteen. A fucking snake on his shoulder. Seth had sneered at it when he first saw it. 

Serh tried not to care-- always reassured himself that it was fine if he didn't have a soulmate somewhere out there in the world because it was one less person that he had to worry about and had to keep safe. And he tried and tried to continue not caring, but something always nagged at him in the back of his mind that he was undeserving of having a soulmate-- of having someone out there for someone like him. 

And now he's twenty five, waking up in the middle of the night to a soulmark of a goddamn _cross_ on his chest. 

The irony of it all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It starts with an RV. 
> 
> It starts with a prison visit.

It starts with an RV. 

Her mom's body hasn't even fully settled in the ground and her dad has already bought an RV that probably wasn't cheap. He stuffs them all inside with whatever food they have left in their cupboards and their fridge (which isn't much because none of them have been in the mood to do grocery shopping lately-- something that was usually left to Jennifer). Scott sulks in the back of the car, playing the same riff over and over again on his guitar and Kate. 

Kate is gripping her bible tight enough that her knuckles turn white and a page or two threaten to rip out. She clenches her eyes shut when the RV jolts forward and her dad almost hits their neighbors mailbox. The couches are itchy and the air conditioner is broken so her hair sticks to her forehead and... and she misses her mom. It's been a tumultuous month-- alternating between crying and accepting condolences from friends and family. She's just so.

Tired. 

Of everything. 

She releases her bible-- exhales once-- and slightly pulls her sleeve up. Her only solace these days have been the black flames that encircle her skinny wrist. 

Kate wonders when she'll finally meet her soulmate. It's all good fun to have a soulmark but she wants-- she needs, almost desperately-- is to finally meet the person that she's supposed to be with. She needs them in her life right now more than anything. She can't talk to her father-- who since losing his wife, has picked up alcohol and placed down his bible. She can't talk to Scott either. Scott-- who should know how she's feeling more than anyone else. A small rift has been created between them, pushing them slowly apart. 

She isn't sure what's to come out of this road trip. If it'll be like those movies where everyone ends up happy and forgiving each other and all that mumbo jumbo. But what Kate knows is this-- 

That she needs to have some faith in things. She holds her wrist and rests her head against the window, watching Bethel pass by in a blur. In a world bound by fate, she figures that this is where she's supposed to be. It's less than ideal to be trapped in an RV with two people who she can't talk to, but she tries to keep hope that things will be okay. 

And if she feels a _little_ unconvinced. 

Well. 

She tries to ignore it. 

\-- 

It starts with a prison visit. 

Carlos is his name. His skin is brown and sun kissed and his hair is shiny slicked back. He's in a black suit that smells like the hot air outside and Seth eyes the loose thread on the lapel of Carlos' jacket. He can recall the exact amount of days-- and hours, if he really tries his hand at some math-- since he last wore something that wasn't a prison jumpsuit in a horrendous shade of green. The metal chair is cold and hard beneath his legs and the guards in the corner turn a cheek to Carlos leaning in closer to Seth.

Freedom. 

It's what rolls out of Carlos' mouth. Practically every other word is a chance at shortening Seth's prison sentence (even if it's by means of escaping, but it's not like Seth is against that per se). And it all just sounds too good to be true-- do this and I'll do this for you-- and Seth has been doing "this" long enough to know when something is shit. But he can't keep sitting behind silver bars. He wasn't made to be kept away from the sunlight behind concrete walls, even if what Carlos is offering sounds like a prison in itself. 

So what Seth does is this. 

He agrees to Carlos' deal-- even his terms and conditions-- to drive across the border and it's as if as soon as he says yes, Richard is there-- freeing him-- and Seth has never been happier to see his baby brother. 

"We're really doing this," Richard mutters it, more to himself as they drive off in what Seth assumes is a stolen car. An inconspicuous black vehicle that looks about as average as every other car they pass by. Seth half expects to hear sirens and helicopters whirring above them, but the only sounds is the car's engine and the air conditioner blowing at his face. 

He turns the air conditioner off, cracks open a window instead, and inhales deeply through his nose like it's his first time smelling air-- smelling _freedom_ \-- and it's what has excitement buzzing through his veins. It's what makes him briefly touch a hand to his chest, where there's a soulmark of a cross. 

"We're doing it," Seth says simply, nodding his head. There's no going back now-- especially not with a man like Carlos (which pisses Seth off more than he's willing to admit, because he hates when someone has more power over him). But there's something in the air that shifts, that tugs on Seth and makes him touch his soulmark again, like this is exactly where he's supposed to be. 

Richard flicks a glance at where Seth's hand is resting. But neither of them say another word as they drive down the desert highway.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is longer than the other two that ive posted, so i hope you guys don't mind. as always, thank you for reading! have a good day :)

The Dew Drop Inn is a sad excuse for a motel. 

It's an ugly shade of beige and the room is too small for three people and Kate is _pretty_ sure that this is the type of place that people come to for their illegal activity. Already their stay here is off to a rocky start when her father tells her to drive the RV and she almost hits a man-- a man with cropped black hair and tan skin-- who strides in front of the vehicle like he's just asking to be run over. He's drinking beer and Kate gives him a dirty look-- which deepens-- when he stands and stares at her for a moment, before tipping his bottle at her. 

The nerve of some people, really.

The only upside to pit stopping here is the pool. The pool-- that is miraculously clean and sparkling under the sun-- is just begging her to dip her feet in. By the time the family deposits their things in the room, Kate has forgotten all about the drunk man because, really, the tension is palpable between her, Scott, and her father. She practically sprints out of the room, only feels relief when she can breathe again, even if the heat envelops her as soon as she steps a foot out of the door. 

When she was younger, her parents use to take them all to the beach during the summer. Well, the beach was really just a lake located a few miles outside of their small town but still-- it had sand and water and it did the trick. They stopped going the summer before her mom died though. Jennifer was already acting strange-- crying in her bedroom when she thought no one else would hear, but Kate did. She always did. 

The pool goes ten feet deep and Kate muses that she should tie an anchor to her pretty little foot and sink all the way to the bottom. But she shakes her head at her morbid thoughts and jumps in the water like her life depends on it. 

After a while of swimming laps around the pool, Kate floats on her back. Her face angled towards the sun and she can already feel the splatter of freckles that are going to appear across her nose and shoulders. It's quiet and the only sounds are her breathing and the water lapping against her body, but then she hears it-- the parting of two lips and then words that startle her. 

"You okay?"

Kate's eyes snap open. Her body slowly dips back in the water-- cool and sweet against her hot skin-- as she looks up at the man standing at the edge of the pool. 

"I'm-- I'm fine," she stutters, pool water dripping from her cherry red lips. She treads back to the ladder, conscious that the man is still watching her from the rim of his glasses. How creepy, she thinks-- doesn't voice, not even under her breath, because she somehow suspects that he'd be able to hear her. The man is tall, with neatly combed hair and dressed in a tailored black suit and all Kate can think of is if he feels hot wearing it. She feels hot too, but it's for entirely different reasons-- reasons like the man's heavy lidded gaze locked on her and the fact that she's only in a bikini. 

He doesn't even pretend to be coy about checking her out; rakes his gaze slowly up and down the length of her body. But then she realizes something when his gaze stops at her arm. He wasn't really checking her out. He was really looking for her soulmark. She practically sneers at herself-- for her foolish thoughts-- for thinking that he would be looking at a little thing like her. She's not sure if it's relief or disappointment-- which can only really mean that they aren't meant for each other-- that flashes in his eyes when he latches onto the black flames encircling her wrist and forearm. 

She almost feels disappointed too that they're not each other's soulmates. 

_Almost._

He finally looks away from her arm, nodding and muttering something under his breath to himself as if he's coming to terms with something. She wants to ask what that weird look on his face is for, but he's already turning away, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from inside his jacket. 

Her shoulders slump. "Can I have one of those?" 

The strangeness on his face is gone, replaced by a small smirk that tugs at his cheeks-- like he's not really used to smiling, or looking anything but mysterious-- and it almost makes her laugh. She hasn't laughed in a while.

"Didn't your daddy tell you never to do this?"

"Do what?" She asks, gently taking the cigarette from his outstretched fingers and placing it directly between her lips. It's-- it's almost intimate-- and Kate refuses to blush as he holds out his lighter for her. 

"Talk to strangers," he says with his cigarette still dangling from between his lips. Smoke unfurling between them, making him look soft and angelic in the sunlight. 

Kate resists rolling her eyes and blows out a puff of smoke. Sits down on the white chair where her things are and extends her legs out. "My daddy says a lot of things." 

The man does something unexpected then. He sits on the chair next to hers and stretches his legs out too-- as if he's sunbathing with her, even in his black suit. His socks peek out from under the hems of his pants and she smiles. 

"That's an interesting soulmark," he takes a long drag of his cigarette then exhales, nodding towards her arm. Kate protectively places a hand over her soulmark, pulls the towel to hide it. She's usually not shy about it-- proud of it, even-- but the way he's looking at it sets her off. Makes her feel uncomfortable. Like he already knows something that she doesn't. 

"What's yours?" She asks, watching as grey ashes fall against her pale thighs. 

"That's personal," he makes a 'tsk' sound but she can recognize the lilt in his voice, he's-- he's teasing her. "You don't even know my name."

"So tell me," she prompts further, not caring that he rolls his eyes at her like she's an annoying little sister. The action reminds her of Scott-- of her actual brother-- breathing and alive in a room upstairs when he might as well be on another planet with how he avoids her like the plague. "I'm Kate."

"Kate," he says her name slowly-- tests it out in his deep voice-- and nods in approval. "I'm Richard."

"So what's your soulmark, Richard?" She raises a brow at him-- smiles at him, small and uncaring. He shakes his head at her, but there's a playfulness in his eyes-- almost like he's challenging her to push him for more-- and she does because she's too damn curious for her own good. 

"You saw mine," she pouts, and realizes she must look ridiculous. People still mistake her for a child and give her children's menus at restaurants. Here she is in a strawberry colored bathing suit with too hopeful eyes and a cigarette making her throat feel scratchy. It's hilarious, she thinks. "It's only fair if you show me yours."

He raises a brow at her and she stiffens-- waiting for it-- for him to call her childish and tease her even more, but he doesn't do that. He unbuttons his crisp white shirt, tugs the material aside, and beckons her to look with two slender fingers. A snake sits prettily on his shoulder. Two small fangs peek out of its thin mouth and Kate wonders who this soulmark could possibly match with. 

"Who are they?" Her voice is light-- soft like melting butter-- and she realizes that she's much closer to him than she was before. 

"I haven't met them yet," he says, very straight to the point, no hint of sadness or desperation. Nothing like the way she sounds when she talks about her soulmate. 

She narrows her eyes at him. Leans back to assess him and the minuscule wrinkles in his otherwise perfect face. "How old are you?" 

"You're very nosy, did you know that?" He shakes his head in amusement, ignoring her question. He looks at her for a moment-- looks at her fondly even-- but the moment is immediately broken when her phone begins buzzing. They both look at the lit up screen to see a picture of her father. Of course he doesn't know who the old man is on her phone, but he cusses softly anyway, abruptly standing up, and flicks his cigarette into the pool. She would scold him for doing that, but he avoids her gaze. 

"You should head back to your room," he pauses-- glances at her soulmark for the millionth time, his jaw twitching-- then he glares at it, as if her soulmark has just complicated things for him. "Shit."

\--

The Dew Drop Inn is a goddamn _beauty._

Not five stars exactly, but it fares better than the usual digs that Seth and Richard find themselves in sometimes. Seth shudders-- remembers the dodgier places that he's had to sleep in-- and is thankful that this place at least has a working air conditioner and clean bedsheets. Really. His standards are fucking low, so this is amazing. There's even a pool. Seth can't remember the last time he went swimming and a part of him itches to rip off his cheap suit and jump in for a bit. But there's no time for that-- no time for fun and splashing around in water that smells of chlorine and trying to pick up a girl or two to bring back to his room-- so his only solace is thinking of El Rey. Of paradise, where he'll get to drift in the ocean as much as he damn well pleases. He just has to get through today, then across the border, then everything will be just fine. 

But he can feel control slowly slipping away from him and he hates it. His hands keep twitching and he can feel the tension budding in his shoulders. Things have only just begun and it's already gone to crap. Carlos backed out of giving them a safe ride across the border and Seth knew-- he fucking called it-- that this whole thing sounded too easy to be believable. 

He has a plan though. He's always been a man with a plan and it all lies within an ugly RV parked outside the inn and the family he's currently pointing a gun at. 

They're complying more than he thought they would. Seth expected kicking and screaming, especially from the younger kid whose gaze is practically on fire. Yet the father and son sit on the edge of the bed-- clean hands gripping the bedsheets-- and listen to what Seth tells them to do, which is to shut the fuck up. It's going almost too easy, and he's not surprised by what happens when the stupid door to the room swings open. 

Pointing a gun at his soulmate isn't exactly how he expected to meet them, but the universe is funny that way. 

He feels it as soon as she walks in. There's no mistaking that she's the one-- no mistaking this thing blooming inside of his chest-- this thing that he's never felt before. 

Everything fades to background noise and all he can focus on is the short girl standing in front of the barrel of his fully loaded gun. 

That little shred of control he thought he had left? 

Yeah, it's out the window at this point, especially when his gaze lands on the cross dangling around her neck. 

That's the same cross that's branded on his chest, hidden underneath his thin white button up, and his eyes search for her soulmark. He tilts his head, squinting his eyes in disbelief. The flames that plague his mind-- the flames that he sees when he closes are eyes-- are boldly staring back at him on her skinny arm. Taunting him. 

_Come a little closer._

He wants to. Really does want to close the gap between them, but he stands there like a fucking marionette. Jaw half open and a gun dangling from his slackened fingertips. Fingertips that ache to reach out and touch her to see if she's actually real, but apparently meeting your soulmate takes away your ability to even fucking speak because now she's shying away from his too intense stare. Thank fuck for Richard, who notices Seth's reaction and slyly diverts everyone's attention to something else. 

He knows he's staring, he knows that he's being the weird brother this time around, but he mostly does it out of shock. What are the odds that he would have met his soulmate now? Right in the middle of an important heist he's got going on, too. It's just made things a million times more complicated.

Richard's voice fades away as Seth's eyes roam over her small face. The splattering of freckles across the tops of her cheeks and nose. The dip of her chin and bright green eyes that make Seth feel like he's being set on fire. And that's when he realizes it-- he saw her earlier in the day. 

He'll blame it on the beers he had to drink, or the stress of the day, or the blazing heat, or even the glare on the windshield of that godawful RV. He'll blame it on all those reasons that caused him to miss the fact that his soulmate was the one that almost ran him over earlier. The girls in his life are always trying to kill him, one way or another. He would laugh if he could but he can't because-- because suddenly he realizes that she's not _looking_ at him, not really-- not the way that a soulmate recognizing their other half should. 

And then his heart stops for entirely different reasons. 

Does she not feel it too? 

She must not because she moves further away from him-- not closer-- not the way his feet keep inching towards her like his life depends on it. She doesn't look at him the way he's looking at her. She tugs her sleeves down her arms almost self consciously and glares at him, but he doesn't care about the scrunch of skin between her eyebrows. Seth's hand almost reaches out to pull her sleeve back up-- so he can see the evidence of her being his soulmate because this is all just too fucking _unreal_ right now-- but he doesn't. He curls his hand into a tight fist instead when Richard clears his throat again. Seth's nails dig into his hand and he knows that if he looked down, he would find crescent shaped marks embedded into his palm.

She sits in front of him with wet hair and a faded plaid shirt and god-- she's probably not even old enough to drink-- and he suddenly feels _ancient_ compared to her. Her cheeks are flushed pink, strands of wet dark brown hair framing her face that's still clinging onto baby fat around her cheeks. How _old_ is she? Jesus fucking Christ, it's like the universe is conspiring to make him the worlds biggest bastard.

"Kate sweetheart," the matriarch of the family says and Seth repeats the name over and over in his head.

_Kate._

The person who is going to royally fuck up all of his plans. 

And she doesn't even know. 

Richard discreetly nudges Seth's shoe with his own and it takes everything in Seth's body to snap his eyes away from her-- from Kate, for fuck's sake. Richard slightly shakes his head-- _not now_ , his eyes seem to say-- and fuck, fuck, fuck. 

Seth can never just be happy, can he? All he wanted was to make some cash and go fuck off to an island in the middle of nowhere, but with his luck, he should've known things wouldn't work out completely.

Richard takes the reigns over the whole operation and Seth finds another reason to love his brother, especially when Richie manages to get the angry looking younger brother and the bible preaching father out of the room and down to the RV, leaving Seth behind with Kate. 

He leans against the door as she sits across from him-- close enough that he could touch her if he wanted to, tug on a strand of her pretty hair-- but he grits his teeth and pretends to busy himself with keeping a lookout through the window. 

_Pretty hair?_ Good lord, he feels like an idiot.

They are both painfully silent as they wait in the motel room together. The attitude that she shamelessly wore on her face earlier is gone, replaced by a pensive look as she wrings her hands together and looks towards the ugly carpet of the motel room. 

And because Seth can't help himself-- because he's never really been able to in the first place-- he throws caution to the wind and opens his damn mouth. 

"Listen, um," he says, like a fucking stuttering kid on his first date and Seth is goddamn ready to bang his head against a wall. 

_Be cool,_ he sneers at himself. 

"Look at me," he says more confidently this time-- remembering who he is, where he is, and who he's talking to. "Remember what I told you: you do what I tell you, when I tell you, and you'll get out of this without any bumps or scrapes, okay?"

The last part comes out softer than he intends to, but she doesn't seem to notice. Her eyes look almost yellow in the light that streams in through the curtains and Seth tries to dial back on the fucking staring. 

"Okay," she says back just as soft and it's as if they've just said vows to each other, even though she's completely unaware of how serious this is to him. 

He's still not sure what to make of all this-- of the feelings in his chest and his sweaty palms and his soulmate sitting right in front of him. This is the person he's been waiting to meet ever since he woke up to that damn soulmark on his chest. And here Seth is, being the royal asshole that he is. He's just kidnapped her entire family and he plans to use them to get to Mexico, dragging them into his mess. He wants El Rey, he wants money, he wants _freedom_ and his brother beside him. But his soulmate is here too, and although Seth can't understand the things that he's feeling, he does know one thing.

He'll protect her. 

He won't let her get hurt and it's something that Seth has never been more sure of.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this update was long overdue. i’m incredibly sorry for the wait! i have no intentions of abandoning the story, no matter how few and far the updates are. i can only thank you for continuing to read and giving this small story shot after shot. x

Breathe in. Breathe out. 

It’s all Kate can do in a situation like this. If she thought the drive with her brother and father was awkward, this drive is on a whole different level. She sits with Scott— Scott who shoved his headphones on and is playing music from his mp3 at a deafeningly loud volume— at the tiny dining table while Richard relaxes on a chair in front of them. He’s unrelenting in the way he stares at her and she glares at him, which only serves to deepen that infuriating smirk of his. 

The RV jostles from a bump in the road and Kate clenches her eyes shut— tries not to think about the sound of bullets whizzing past her ears— and let’s out a small breath. She had never in her life seen a gun, let alone have one pointed at her. She glances at the clock hanging on the wall. Much has changed since the last two hours. 

Kate’s ears strain to hear what’s going on at the back of the RV, where she’s been trying desperately not to look— out of fear that Richard will see, or self preservation, she isn’t sure. Seth is angrily muttering things into the ugly flip phone pressed against his ear. He keeps yanking at the collar of his button up like he wants to rip the shirt off, but he settles for frustratedly running his hand through the thick black tufts of his hair. He’s good looking— which is something she should definitely _not_ be thinking at a moment like this— but his tan skin and pink lips make it hard for Kate not to look at Seth. 

_You do what I tell you, when I tell you, and you'll get out of this without any bumps or scrapes, okay?_

She had needed comfort, she had needed reassurance that things would be okay. The last person she would expect to find those two things in was Seth. It makes her stomach churn and she shifts her eyes down to his arm— the arm that had so protectively wrapped around her chest to shield her from the rain of bullets that came their way when escaping. 

There’s something about him— _something_ that makes her discreetly run her fingers over her soulmark underneath the table. She’s not stupid... Her soulmark had been feeling funny the past two days. Even more so when she came face to face with Seth. She clasps a hand around her wrist— where the flames begin— away from Scott and Richard’s eyes. 

Maybe even way from her own eyes. 

She shakes her head, trying to make sense of things because the more she thinks, the more her suspicions seem to make sense all too well. 

Seth slams his phone down and doesn’t hold back in cussing loudly. Kate pushes away her confusion at everything and turns her attention back to the table where Richard is already looking at her. 

His smirk has practically melted into an odd kind of smile— the kind of coy, teasing smile that lets her know he saw her checking his brother out. Kate tries not to blush, but then Richard chuckles softly and she’s sure her face is an embarrassing shade of crimson. She averts her eyes to the window, the passing scenery of greens and browns that seem to melt together under the sun.

His eyes.

They’re what she noticed first about Seth when she walked into the room. They had looked like liquid amber from the sunlight that streamed in the room through the door crack. 

When it comes to soulmarks and soulmates, they said sometimes you would just _know_ when you’ve met the person for you. You didn’t even have to look at their soulmark before realizing it. He must know who she is then, if her conclusions are correct, right? He must have even an inkling of their connection... but besides the way he stared at her in the room, he doesn’t show any other emotions toward her except annoyance. Maybe his plans are more important to him than his soulmate... more important than _her_.

Kate sucks on her bottom lip, trying to sort through the mess of feelings brewing deep in her chest. 

Let’s say Seth _is_ her soulmate. Then what? It wouldn’t change the fact that he was obviously a bad man, on the run from the cops, and well, he kidnapped her tiny family to take them to God only knows where. He’s her soulmate— that means the person she’s been waiting for since she was a child isn’t who she expected. At all, putting it nicely. He’s bad and dangerous and he just might be her soulmate who also promised to keep her safe and God. Nothing is ever simply black and white when we want it to be. 

Because there’s still the fact of the matter which is that he’s putting her life on the line, and the lives of her already small family. She wants to wake up from this, like it’s all a bad dream, and her soulmate isn’t a man with a gun. But no matter how many times she opens and closes her eyes, the circumstances don’t change. She needs to play things smart, if only for the sake of her brother and father. Kate has to make sure that they stay safe and manage to make it out of this nightmare alive. Then Kate will deal with her soulmark and her feelings, but that promise sounds hollow even to her own ears. 

Seth strides down the narrow walkway and plops himself down onto the makeshift couch without a care in the world on the opposite side of her. He props his feet up— shoes dusty, pants ruffled— and sighs loudly, completely unaware of the inner turmoil raging within Kate. Her eyes cautiously crawl up the length of his body, focusing on the spot on his chest he seems adamant on keeping covered.

“See something you like, princess?” Kate’s eyes snap away from his chest to his face. He has a brow raised and it’s— it’s almost _playful_ — and Kate wants to scream at him, wants him to show her his soulmark, wants the truth out in the open. Instead she blushes, and if she was a crimson color earlier, she’s almost positive she’s on fire now. 

_Fitting_ , she thinks wryly.

She scowls despite herself, despite the fluttery feeling in her chest. “You smell like sweat.”

“And you smell like chlorine,” he rolls his head to the side. His eyes roam over her face and her fingers twitch to push her hair away. She can’t describe the look in his eyes as they stare at each other. Something confused and— and something almost _sad_ passes over his face before he sighs loudly, like he’s annoyed with her and with himself, and he promptly closes his eyes. 

_God _, help her.__

__—_ _

__The photo crinkles between his fingertips._ _

__He used to have pictures of his family. His mom and dad, with Seth and Richard in front of them. All those photos are gone now though and Seth tries to ignore the heaviness that settles over him like a familiar blanket. What happened to his parents, to his life before, seems like it was decades ago already. Nothing but another bump in the road for the life of a Gecko, yet Seth can’t find it in himself to stop staring at the picture he holds._ _

__She looks younger here. Happier. And his finger gently traces the edge of Kate’s hair and her mouth where her smile is wide and uncaring. It’s easy to piece together where the missing matriarch of the family is. Why else would the small family be out on the road in a crappy RV? Why else would there be a thick tension that hangs over the remaining three family members? A sad look on Kate’s face every time she glances out the window?_ _

__Once upon a time, there was nothing more that Seth wanted than to have a family again. A whole one, with both parents alive, and birthday parties, thanksgiving feasts, the whole big bang. It almost makes him sympathize with Kate. Almost. Because then he remembers who he is, the things he’s done, and he knows he doesn’t deserve to have any of those things at all._ _

__Having a soulmate blurs the line between what he wants and what he needs. He spent a majority of his life thinking he didn’t have a soulmate, so he planned his life accordingly, and got used to the idea that it was him against the world. Now there’s a girl in the picture— a girl with flushed cheeks and eyes that always seem to be angry._ _

__It’s almost enough to want to make him grab a hold of the steering wheel and drive them away from whatever danger lies in Mexico with Carlos, but he doesn’t and the car keeps moving down the highway._ _

__He’s never felt more like a coward._ _

__Seth is not who he is without his faults, of which are many and never ending it would seem. He’s always been a selfish asshole. The only person he truly cares for is for his baby brother, he thinks, as he looks at Richard sitting at the table playing with a deck of cards while Scott sneers._ _

__The space in Seth’s heart is small, yet when he looks at Kate, he feels things sliding into place in a way that he’s never experience before. Like it was always small because it was always meant for her._ _

__She’s still looking out the window and he wonders what she sees. All he can see is ugly shades of brown alerting him that they’re closer to the desert and closer to their destination. But her eyes are transfixed, a lip bitten in concentration. He resists the urge to reach out and tug on a strand of her hair, resists the urge to ask her if she’s okay._ _

__Things have never come easy for Seth. It’s like the universe has a giant target on his back for anything and anyone to come his way and try to ruin his life. He learned early on in life that nothing is ever as good as it seems, that there’s always the chance of the rug being pulled out from under his very own feet._ _

__But, _god_ , he needs things to go according to plan just this one time in his life. _ _

__If he can settle the deal with Carlos, and get what’s owed to him, then maybe— just maybe— there could be hope for him after all of this. Hope for El Rey, for Richard, for— for Kate— and maybe the two of them _together_ and he can’t ignore the way his heart clenches. He’ll tell her the truth once everything is over. _ _

__He can only hope that she doesn’t hate him by then._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i enjoyed writing this chapter and showing the confusion that Kate feels. after all, the preacher’s daughter from a small town could have never imagined her soulmate being someone like... well, like seth. and i think she would have some difficulty processing and accepting it. anywho, thank you again for reading. x


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